


Birthday Remembrances

by serenbach



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Canonical Character Death, F/M, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Implied Relationships, M/M, Original Character Death(s), Original Character(s), POV Outsider
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-30
Updated: 2018-08-30
Packaged: 2019-07-04 18:44:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15847158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serenbach/pseuds/serenbach
Summary: To her surprise, Ignis just laughed, though it sounded a little strangled. “Don’t apologise. Hearing from someone who never knew a daemon as anything other than a slightly tiresome story today reminds me that it was almost worth all that we lost.”It's been over a decade since the New Dawn when a young girl notices three men gathered outside the Tomb of the True King.





	Birthday Remembrances

**Author's Note:**

> I intended to write fluff for Noct's birthday but this came out instead. Oops.

Denna frowned to herself as she saw the three men in black outside the Tomb of the True King, a simple stone building on the hill overlooking the sea at Galdin Quay, not too far from her home.

Denna had been up to the Tomb a few times herself, on school trips and stuff, but mostly these days people stayed away from it, aside from memorial days. Usually during the Dawn Festival you couldn’t get near the Tomb for all the little offerings that people left outside it, but she didn’t understand why anyone would be lurking outside it on a random day in August.

Denna’s parents cared  _a lot_  about people treating the Tomb with proper respect – they had both known the True King, before the dark years (Denna used to think they had made that up to impress her, until she had seen a picture of her dad with the King in one of her school textbooks), so she crept closer to make sure that the men hanging around outside weren’t creepy vandals or whatever, that they weren’t doing anything that she would have to run home and tell her parents about.

As she got closer though, she realised that they were about the same age as her parents, and that the odd black outfits they were wearing were actually Kingsglaive uniforms – something she had never seen outside of history books or on T.V. One of them was holding a bunch of blue flowers in his hands.

She’d got close enough to them to see that that one had scars all over his face, and then she knew for a fact who they were. The King’s friends, the ones who had gone on his journey with him, and the ones who had rebuilt the kingdom in his name.

They weren’t all that active in government anymore, she didn’t think, but they were still important, and she knew that she would get in trouble if they noticed her.

But the door to the Tomb was open. It was never open, not even on festival days, and she would be lying to say that she wasn’t curious to see what was inside.

After she watched for a few minutes, trying not to breathe too loud or do anything to make them turn around and see her, Ignis Scientia approached the Tomb alone, his two friends seeming to decide that he needed a moment alone, as they headed back to the road without him.

The moment they were out of sight, she edged towards the open door, preparing to peek inside for just a glimpse, but before she could notice more than a stone carving of the King with a sword lying flat against his chest, Ignis Scientia turned to face her, flowers in one hand and a dagger drawn in the other.

“Who’s there?” he said sharply, and at the squeaky noise of fear she let out, he lowered the knife, but his expression was still angry. “Who are you?”

She swallowed hard. “My name’s Denna,” she managed, “Denna Ghirnze - I think you knew my parents, Dino and Coctura Ghirnze…”

“Yes, I knew them,” Ignis replied, his frown retreating slightly. “The last time I saw your mother she had just saved…”

“… Just saved my dad’s life from a daemon with nothing but a chef’s knife, and he had to escape with no clothes on,” Denna finished with a sigh, rolling her eyes at the story she had heard a thousand times before realising that she had just sassed  _Ignis Scientia,_ the former governor of Insomnia. “Erm, sorry.”

To her surprise, Ignis just laughed, though it sounded a little strangled. “Don’t apologise. Hearing from someone who never knew a daemon as anything other than a slightly tiresome story today reminds me that it was almost worth all that we lost.”

It was such a strange thing to say that Denna stared up at him in silence, noticing for the first time the protective way he was standing in front of the King’s effigy, the way his mouth was firmly turned down, how his unseeing eyes were red-rimmed, and she understood.

He must still miss the King, even after all these years.

“Tell your parents I said hello,” he told her, and it was a dismissal, a politer one than she had expected, especially since he hadn’t questioned why she was there.

Denna nodded, forgetting that he wouldn’t see. “I will,” she said aloud when she caught her mistake, and left to head back home, but she couldn’t stop herself from looking back behind her just in time to see Ignis touching the cold cheek of the King before arranging the flowers at his feet.

“Happy birthday, Noct,” Ignis murmured, and Denna had to stop herself from making any noise. No wonder he was sad. No wonder he had bought flowers.

No wonder the King’s friends had visited the tomb today. 

She was glad that they still remembered him. 

**Author's Note:**

> I know that Dino and Coctura are strongly implied to have been daemoned, but for the purposes of this fic they got away.


End file.
